>> i think raising the capital gains tax, raising the dividend tax, raising the estate tax, raising taxes on small businesses, is a disaster for the economy, it's too fragile. >> that's not true at all. all the research shows that actually the economic activity is not that sensitive to tax rates at the top of the income distribution -- >> that's not true, it's the opposite. >> i'm sorry -- >>> the economy's highly sensitive, that's why countries around the world have been cutting their tax rates. >> we grew faster when we had higher tax rates. >> let's just do it another reality check on this. which is that, whether we go over the cliff or have a scaled-down deal, we've got two things looming, a debt ceiling in probably two months which republicans will no doubt use as leverage. we still don't have a grand bargain that deals with deficit and debt by taking on tax reform and entitlement reform. what rational reason, stephen, first you, should we have that that other kick the can to another situation we're about to go off a cliff would produce any different result from a new congress? >> i'